PC, dartmouth, and brits

Did you know that in several states, when you grade students' work, you're not allowed to use a red pen because theyhave been outlawed. They 'diminish the confidence of the student.' Don't people understand that switching to a green or purple pen will just do the same thing after a few times? People are so shortsided...

The other day we read a study about how students read. It was attributed to Dartmouth, which was exciting. But in typical fashion, the article was about Harard. The quest to be Harvard Jr. continues...

The pretentiousness of the Brits is eclipsed only by that of the US. Despite being a small island a sixth the size of the US, the Brits have decided that theirs is the correct version of english and ours is wrong. The Spanish have the same attitude about Mexico. I teach my students E-merican english in class and make sure that everyone knows when something's not right in American.

After a two week hiatus, my phone is working again. I left my charger at Becka's, and after waiting 10 days for one I ordered off ebay to come in, i finally asked Becka to send it. It came in three days. I'm still waiting for the ebay one to come in... So not that i expect anyone to call me with a calling card, but i have email on my phone now....

comments on the euro, brits

I'm still trying to figure out why all of Europe adopted this currency system that consists of bills of different colors and sizes and dollar and two-dollar coins. I thought that was the worst part about the Canadian system - having to carry around a pocket full of change. Apparently the Europeans thought that was a good idea.

The Brits speak very differently than we do - I am constantly confused by their use of different words. We kept talking about "revising" yesterday's lessons at the beginning of each class, and I was like, "why would we want to change them? and how would we do it anyways?" Apparently, the word "revise" is meant to mean "review", but if you look it up on dictionary.com, 'revise' means what I thought it meant and the brits are wrong. I'm compiling a list of all the strange phrases the Brits use, and although i imagine someone's already done it more comprehensively, that's not going to stop me.

Round one with Spanish wine ended in a knockout: I woke up at 7:30 on the cold marble floor with my headset on from trying to call Becka. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to run 4 miles, eat a light meal, skip the water and go straight to the red wine. Nine times...